My post on the shootings in France has brought tens of thousands of people to this site – but not to read my dull contribution. People are coming to read the comments from other readers.
Today’s development of the bomb squad descending on the al-Hilli house does not in itself worry me enormously. You may recall the massive terror scare that was ramped up when some Muslim students in Manchester were found to own a bag of sugar.
In fact we have the opposite phenomenon today, with the spook-fed “security correspondents” on TV lining up to tell us it is probably just everyday household stuff. This deviation from the standard Islamophobic “Muslims = bombs” narrative is so startling it makes me wonder why the “move along, nothing to see here” line is being taken so quickly.
My own security services sources insist that al-Hilli was not a person of current interest to the UK intelligence agencies and was not involved in anything clandestine. I have no reason to disbelieve them. On the other hand, the limited and confusing information in the media is almost entirely from official sources. I find it very strange indeed how little attention has been paid to the murdered French cyclist, and how easily it is presumed he was just a passerby. Surely it is as likely he was the intended victim and the al-Hillis the accidental witnesses?
Please do read the comments on my first entry on the subject to see the debate unfettered by the censorship in the mainstream media. This is perhaps my favourite comment:
From Janesmith101
All comments regarding Sylvain, Al-Hilli and a possible nuclear link are being removed from sites I’ve posted on in The Guardian, Independent and Huffpo UK.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/sep/09/alps-killer-motive-baffles-police
Here was my comment, I added as a point of fact it was completely speculative and an unproven theory in a later comment, also removed.
Sylvain Mollier, the ‘passing’ cyclist, was in fact a nuclear metallurgist who worked for a french nuclear company called Cezus (a subsidiary of Areva). Cezus fabricates and processes zirconium into metal and nuclear grade zircoaloy for nuclear fuel assemblies – it also has other applications in aerospace such as components and ceramics for missiles and satellites. Mr Al-Hilli was also a skilled aerospace engineer, on what looks to be his first camping holiday.
What is the probability that two highly skilled engineers managed be at the same remote place, at the same time, yet still managed to end up dead as a result of what looks to be a military style assasination?
As someone else pointed out in The Independent comments, the deceased were found by a ‘retired’ RAF officer who, we assume, will recieve perpetual anonymity as a witness. If the police are looking for a motive, try an intercepted rendevous by a security service fixated on denying a hostile power illicit nuclear technology.
http://wrmea.org/component/content/article/162-1995-june/7823-israel-bombs-iraqs-osirak-nuclear-research-facility.html
The Huffington Post UK reports that this wasn’t the family’s first trip to the camp site. An earlier report had asked other camp site visitors whether they had seen the family before and they had replied they hadn’t. If this isn’t wasn’t the first visit by Al-Hilli, it might slightly increase the odds that he knew or had met Mollier before, this being the last in a series of rendevous of a transactional nature. Mollier lived and worked locally.
Again, I’m not sure of the truth of these reports, there is some very sloppy journalism, as there is always seems to be. I’ve read for example Mollier’s company Cevus descirbed as a steel firm something which it is patently not, but perhaps it may have been a detail lost in translation.
An interesting comment summing up some of the strange coincidences, at least, surrounding these murders. My other favourite comment calls me a “macchiavellian shill”.
I have only one thought of my own I want to add at the minute. Al-Hilli was a Shia muslim and had been on pilgrimage to Qoms in Iran. What if it is indeed true that he was in possession of no especial nuclear or defence secrets to pass on to the Iranians, but the Israelis thought that he was? The Israeli programme of assassination of scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear programme is a definite fact. It makes as much sense as anything else at the moment, as a possibility.
I am not saying that is what happened. But the directions in which the mainstream media is being so strenuously pointed by official sources, like the massacre of an entire family over an inheritance, are certainly no more inherently probable. Certainly as we are now told all the shots were from one gun, for the assassin to get each victim in the head with none of them being able to escape, indicates real proficiency with the weapon and a very high level of training.
Brett Martin – British Airways Captain
23 Lauriston Road Brighton East Sussex
BN1 6SN
Tel: 01273 504419
corpbycorp.com/…/1215945825_Adam%20Novis%20-%20CV.doc
Now that ‘ex-RAF guy’ has been named as Brett Martin and shown to the world that part of any conspiracy or cover-up drops away for me. He would be known in the area and so if they produced someone else acting the part the lie would soon be exposed. It has always been clear that if ‘Ex-RAF guy’ was genuine then the media would identify him pretty quickly. That is probably what happened and that, together with the fact that hiding him was only fuelling unhelpful speculation, meant that the best way forward for both him and the investigation was to put him on show.
Incidentally the BBC interviewer did discuss the motorbike, 4×4 etc. with him and has tweeted about it. Reconciling Brett M’s account with that of Philippe D is still a challenge. Has anyone seen a first hand account of what Philippe D said in his media interview?
The two now corroborate on the question of who successfully called emergency services.
Brett M says he saw 4×4 and motorbike, Philippe D did not. If both are telling the truth then the only answer is that the 4×4 and motorbike took the other fork in the road to the one Philippe D was approaching from. The local farmer saw a motorbike in the area several times.
There remains the question of blood on the 7 year old but I have not seen what Philippe D actually said on this.
@Mark – what is the BBC tweeter’s name?
used to live in Brighton,knew a few ppl there who worked airlines so that fits,strange he said West sussex…..everyone in Brighton knows it’s East Sussex.
You can pass out from shock and indeed die from it without bleeding at all.
He smelt burning rubber and a burning engine smell? where they chased to this location by the Bike.
It was nice of Brett to answer all our questions?
@Mark your right he would be known in the area, good angle, do we knwo for sure that the builder was working on Mr Martins house that is included on the Silver Fern site?
Google street view. Average terraced house,fairly quiet street.Bland a bit like BM.
@Ricki – the builder was said to working on the last house in Chevaline before the forest road whereas Brett’s house is in the village of Lathuille which is 3km to the NW.
This corner of France is obviously VERY popular with the Brits. (I never knew).
@MontyW – BBC interviewer is @tonysymonds – https://twitter.com/tomsymonds
@RickiTarr – engine and rubber smell was because wheels were spinning and engine revving when Brett M arrived on the murder scene.
@ Ian – there’s no Google street view in Lathuille.
@Kathy – I am not sure if the builders were actually working on the RAF guy’s house, but it was reported by a few people. It just got buried and no one did more checking on it.
@Ferret – See my post at 7:01pm last night re the D-notice and why I don’t believe there is one in place. Craig has also said that his sources have said that al-hilli was not a person of interest to British intelligence.
As to whether I believe it was Mossad? I am less inclined to think that way now. It’s looking like the weapon may have been a CZ50 and not a Beretta. The French prosecutor has also said that the source of the crime is in the UK. I have no reason to disbelieve him. I’m kinda leaning towards industrial espionage, or more likely that it may have been the brother. I initially thought that there was no way that this could have been the case because the two girls were left alone – but I would be very interested to find out about the father’s will and if it has been properly executed. i.e., will the brother now become the main beneficiary, or the girls? I thought it strange that he presented himself to the police to enquire about his brother when he heard of the initial reports of the murders. Almost seemed like he was giving himself an alibi.
But I am still very much open as to what happened, and no way would I rule out secret services at this stage. There are just too many unknowns. I would like to know the answers to (in no particular order):
Is there a section of roof rack missing? Did he have a bike, or was it a container type roof rack for holding pipes?
Why was the elder girl outside the car? Had she been in the front seat? Did she get out to let someone in?
What gun was used? Beretta, Skorpion or CZ50?
The contents of the will?
Are there any unaccounted for bullets? Where did they land?
Mollier’s partner brought a picture of her missing partner to the police station after he was only missing for a few hours. Why? Did she suspect that he may have been involved in something dangerous?
The movements of Swedish son?
What was in the safe?
The police will have the answers to most of these questions and are in a far better position to ascertain what happened than the amateur sleuths here – and they say that the answers are to be found in the UK.
tomsymonds twitter is significant highlights the keypoint:
I dont know who was in the vehicles so you dont need to kill me.
That was the whole point of the interview.
RAF man’s home in Brighton………sorry should have made that clear. No23
@MontyW – Sorry typo – I meant BBC interviewer is @tomsymonds – https://twitter.com/tomsymonds
Aussie/New Zeland twang to his accent?
@Ian
I noticed the New Zealand tinge as well. His company is “Silver Fern” – the NZ rugby logo.
@Ian Boyd
LinkedIn profile says he was at St. Kentigern’s College in Auckland 1971-78. Picked up a Kiwi accent and hasn’t entirely lost it. I suppose that’s why his company is called Silver Fern – a Kiwi emblem.
@Ian Boyd,
Yeah, according to LinkedIn, he was schooled in NZ: St Kentigern’s College.
Is that somehow significant, or just an observation on your part? 🙂
…he began to scour the woods…
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/french-alps-shooting-british-raf-1322399
So why wait so long to wheel out Mr Martin, who seems to check out? Why not have said retired Pilot for example?
Right at the end of the extended interview, did he say something like
“It’s time to rein in these sort of people who walk about our society and do these sort of things with impunity,”
That in reply to who he thought might have done it. Anyone got the exact quote. Full interview not online yet that I can see unless anyone has a link.
Interesting words (if I heard correctly) that he’d obviously decided to say in advance.
The silver fern is the national emblem of new Zealand and thus it appears on the rugby shirts of the All Blacks.
The years he was at St Ketigerns indicates that this was his High School and thus he would be a New Zealander or his parents immigrated there when he was a young lad.
Meanwhile, back in Claygate this pm…
http://pics.lockerz.com/s/243938102
Er, how long ago was this property of interest???
Can anyone find a photo of William Brett Martin other than from this interview?
Otherwise we have yet another 1-dimensional character to join the others
This interview paints a totally different picture than Phillipe D? didnt he say the girl was face down with no sign of cuts or wounds etc??
Mr Martin states that he put the girl in the recovery position that definatley would not be face down and moved out of the way of the Rd and Car, im sure Phillipe D said that the girl was still in the Rd?
@Ricky Tarr
The point about the recovery position is that it is not face down, it is face and body sideways.
The girl is reported to have been shot in the shoulder so you would pad/compress the area as best you could and keep that shoulder uppermost to lessen to blood flow out of the entry/exit hole(s).
Philippe D said no visible blood/wounds but they should have been visible if she was in recovery position.
@MontyW
You asked about the report of 30 seconds of automatic gunfire. The interviewee is Danielle Pelletier (sounds like)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19499052
Where on earth was she when she heard it? Could be a holidaymaker, though there is a restaurateur in Annecy with that name. SARL LA FLAMBEE
Secteur d’activité : Hôtels et restaurants
Restaurant
Adresse : 26 rue Vaugelas
Code postal : 74000
Ville : Annecy
Dirigeant : Danielle PELLETIER
But might be irrelevant. Still, an important witness in the official narrative. She is interviewed astride a mountain bike. or could be styled Danièle PELLETIER
Kempe: “The conspiracy theory surrounding this tragic event is based on nothing but vapours and the increasingly desperate attempts of the gullible to keep it aloft are becoming laughable.”
Well said.
———————————————————————————–
“He blinked a lot”. 😆
Interviewer of Pelletier – Jon Kay, BBC West of England correspondnent (!)
Jon Kay @jonkay01
@GuyBexon v sad. awful. just helping out BBC foreign team for a couple of days. back home v soon.
12:28 AM – 7 Sep 12 · Details
Strange.
@skymartinbrunt has tweeted more details of Brett Martin interview:
http://twitter.com/skymartinbrunt
@Straw44berry – there is also a photo of Brett Martin on his LinkedIn profile (I posted link earlier).
He said he saw the driver’s side window was already “star smashed” before he smashed it, and went to the driver’s side to switch the engine off.
He then went to the other side and saw the passenger side windows smashed too.
So whch way would he have been travelling? Along the lane with the car/carpark on his left? I assumed cyclists and the car itself would have travelled up the lane with the carpark to their right as they reached it. If he saw the driver’s side first then I’m thinking this can’t be the case.
Anyone?